No second chance
Club cold on winter swim event
ORGANISERS of the Pier to Pub have ruled out hosting a similar event later this year even if Covid numbers ease and it becomes safe to do so.
Pier to Pub director Mike Napolitano said the unique nature of the volunteer force that helps put on the annual showcase in Lorne was a key reason behind shelving any thoughts of trying to run a large-scale event during winter.
“It is a very unique event as there is such a huge reliance on our amazing volunteer network, whether that is our members or people holidaying here who have been volunteers for decades,” Napolitano said.
“That is the key success ingredient that we have for the Pier to Pub, our volunteers, and we find at this time of year there is an increase in the number of people able to provide their services.
“That is not necessarily the case at other times in the year so what we would probably say is, if we can’t have the best volunteers, the best safety and best organisational structures around the event, we would rather not run it.
“So those elements mean having the event outside of the window of the weekend is probably not realistic.”
The cancellation of the Pier to Pub for a second straight year is likely to hurt the Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club financially, though Napolitano was unable to say just how badly the hit to the club coffers would be.
He said, regardless of the effects that not running the event would have, the club had been heartened by locals thanking it for seeing the bigger picture and making the call to go virtual just three days out from the Pier to Pub being held.
“We were three days out and having to make the call so a lot of the infrastructure had been committed to,” he said. “So that part of it is hard but we make decisions not purely based on financials, it is based on what is the best thing for our competitors, for our members and for our community down here in Lorne.
“We made the decision based on what is best for the community rather than financially what is best for the club.
“The best thing for us would have been to run the event because it is emotionally and financially the best thing, but we are a surf lifesaving club that is here to serve the community and to keep people safe on our beaches, so we made the decision with the community in mind and we feel really confident we made the right decision.”